FoxPro
FoxProwas atext-basedprocedurally orientedprogramming languageanddatabase management system(DBMS), and it was also anobject-orientedprogramming language, originally published by Fox Software and later byMicrosoft,forMS-DOS,Windows,Macintosh,andUNIX.The final published release of FoxPro was 2.6. Development continued under theVisual FoxProlabel, which in turn was discontinued in 2007.
FoxPro was derived from FoxBase (Fox Software, Perrysburg, Ohio), which was in turn derived fromdBaseIII (Ashton-Tate) and dBase II. dBase II was the first commercial version of a database program written by Wayne Ratliff, called Vulcan, running onCP/M,as does dBase II.[1]
FoxPro was both a DBMS and arelational database management system(RDBMS), since it extensively supported multiple relationships between multiple DBF files (tables). However, it lackedtransactional processing.
FoxPro was sold and supported by Microsoft after they acquired Fox Software in its entirety in 1992. At that time there was an active worldwide community of FoxPro users and programmers. FoxPro 2.6 for UNIX (FPU26) has even been successfully installed onLinuxandFreeBSDusing the Intel Binary Compatibility Standard (ibcs2) support library.
Version information[edit]
Operating system compatibility[edit]
| Version | FP 2.0 | FP 2.5 | FP 2.6 |
|---|---|---|---|
| MS-DOS | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Windows 3.1to7 Ultimatesp1 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Macintosh | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SCO UNIX | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Linux andFreeBSD | Yes | Yes | Yes[2] |
| Windows 2000 | No | No | Yes |
Technical aspects[edit]
FoxPro 2 included the "Rushmore" optimizing engine, which used indices to accelerate data retrieval and updating. Rushmore technology examined every data-related statement and looked for filter expressions. If one was used, it looked for an index matching the same expression.
FoxPro 2 was originally built onWatcom C/C++,which used theDOS/4GW memory extenderto accessexpandedandextended memory.It could also use almost all available RAM even if noHIMEM.SYSwas loaded.
Version timeline[edit]
| Version | Returned by VERSION() | File Size | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| FPW 2.6a | FoxPro 2.6a for Windows | 2.44 Mb | September 28, 1994 |
| FPM 2.6a | FoxPro 2.6a for Macintosh | Unknown | August 1994 |
| FPD 2.6a | FoxPro 2.6a for DOS | 1.79 Mb | August 1994 |
| FPW 2.6 | FoxPro 2.6 for Windows | 2.52 Mb | March 9, 1994 |
| FPM 2.6 | FoxPro 2.6 for Macintosh | Unknown | 1993 |
| FPD 2.6 | FoxPro 2.6 for DOS | 1.83 Mb | March 1994 |
| FPU 2.6 | FoxPro 2.6 for Unix | 2.3 Mb | 1993 |
| FPW 2.5 | FoxPro 2.5 for Windows | 1.63 Mb | January 1993 |
| FPD 2.5 | FoxPro 2.5 for DOS | 509.0 Kb | February 1993 |
| FPD 2.0 | FoxPro 2.0 for DOS | 488.7 Kb | July 1992 |
| FPD 1.0 | FoxPro 1.0 for DOS | 343.2 Kb | November 1991 |
References[edit]
- ^a CP/M set released in 1982,archived fromthe originalon 24 December 2021,retrieved5 July2020
- ^using theibcsfiles from theLinux ABIonSourceForge